


The Life of a Cell

by Edonohana



Category: Annihilation (2018 Garland)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-13
Updated: 2019-02-13
Packaged: 2019-10-27 09:16:45
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17764040
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edonohana/pseuds/Edonohana
Summary: The being that leaves the Shimmer carries with it some of both Lena and Dr. Ventress.





	The Life of a Cell

**Author's Note:**

  * For [track_04](https://archiveofourown.org/users/track_04/gifts).



"Are you Lena?" 

Your tongue feels thick and unfamiliar in your mouth. It is short and solid, made to form words rather than to suck nectar. This seems wrong. 

_That is not the right question,_ you think. _Rephrase_.

You can hear the click and whirr of recording devices. You have unseen listeners behind many layers of protection, designed to contain even the tiniest and most elusive of particles. 

"I don't know," you say at last. 

That is a true answer. It is an answer that both excites and frightens the listeners. You know this because you were once a listener, and it would have excited and frightened you.

It still excites and frightens you. Whoever you are.

Whatever you are.

The listeners will take steps to destroy you, eventually. Those steps will probably fail, but you decide not to wait. 

The human body is composed of trillions of cells. You release the bonds that hold them together and dissolve into particles. The containment measures would keep you separate from the listeners if you were the size of a human cell, but you are now much smaller. If you are small enough, nothing is a barrier. 

Your cells propel themselves with impossibly delicate structures. Some resemble pseudopods, some parachutes of spider silk. You disperse, then gather yourself. You are outside your room, your cell. Your hair moves like cilia. 

You trail an invisible cloud of particles as you begin to walk, but you keep enough to preserve the appearance of a woman. You don't worry about losing your self, whatever that is. In whatever sense of the word is meaningful, that has either already been lost or is holographically present in each cell. Besides, if you lose too much substance, you can always gather yourself up again. 

Nothing leaves the Shimmer that is not part of the Shimmer. You have brought the Shimmer with you. You are bringing the Shimmer to all that is not yet of the Shimmer. 

You are breathing me in. 

You are Lena. You are Ventress. You are the Shimmer. You are a part of all of them, and all of them are a part of you, fracturing and dividing, melding and coalescing, annihilated and eternal.


End file.
